Interview with Bombay Bicycle Club - 2011
"Obviously the Puppet Theatre is the stand out gig, for where it was and because we were wearing puppets!" - Jamie from the band remembers Norwich fondly...
You could have done them in any order, but ‘Flaws’ is sandwiched by two albums that are very much ‘plugged-in’. What was it that made you plug back in again – did you get it out of your system? We always knew that we were gonna make another electric album, so it was more of a matter of when. We started working on it before we released ‘Flaws’ as well; ‘Flaws’ was just something that came along very suddenly, was very spur of the moment and we did it in the six months at the beginning of 2010, whereas we’ve been working on this album since pretty much as soon as we finished ‘I Had the Blues…’ I’d say that ‘Flaws’ is the exception to the other albums, but to be honest I have no idea what the next one’s gonna be like!
That’s quite exciting – it’s good, I think – - It’s good because you do get those bands that sort of keep making the same album and inevitably if you’re going to try and do that, the quality’s only going to get worse, whereas if you try something different you’ve got nothing to hold it up against.
You mentioned doing three albums in a very quick succession, Jamie, which was a contrast to when you brought out your first two EPs. You did that on your own label so that you could take the pressure off, but now that you’ve given yourself that work rate, are you going to try to slow it down? Well I think Jack could do with some time away from songwriting, and have a bit of time away from it because it’s weird, although as I said earlier, we’re not a big – or we haven’t ‘til this point been a big touring band, we’ve focused on releasing albums – but we enjoy going on tour a lot more. We don’t really enjoy being in the studio that much and I think it’d be good to have some time to think about what the next album might be like.
You mentioned as well, picking your words carefully, but poor Jack exposes all of his thoughts in his songwriting… Is it ever strange for you to be interpreting his most intimate thoughts, or is it old hat for you guys now? Yeah, I guess we’re just used to it. I mean, some of the lyrics on this album were written quite literally from us interpreting the lyrics from his demos! He was struggling to write some lyrics, and he actually records vocals for all the demos, but they’re just like, mumbly nonsense. The three of us just sort of wrote down what we were hearing, then we just chose the best lyrics!
So there’s something lost in translation, but it seems to have worked anyway. You’ve got Jim Abbiss back on production duties for this album - what made you call him up again? I think the first session we did for the new album was in Canada, for a guy named Dave Newfeld and none of those songs actually got used. I think working for him made us miss Jim, in a way. Basically Jim just works us hard and gives us focus, ‘cause as I said, we’re quite laid back, so it can sometimes lead to getting nothing done. We needed that drive from him really.
I remember from interviewing you the first time round, that at the time you were at the stage with Jim where you were worried you couldn’t even play your guitar very well – does Jim himself see how much you’ve all grown? Yeah, I think this is the first time we’ve all been comfortable in the studio with our own instruments and when it comes to expressing ourselves about what we want it to sound like, ‘cause it’s very hard to describe music; it’s hard to describe what you want it to sound like and I think that takes time.
One of the tracks that’s standing out to me from the new album at the moment is ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ – it’s got a very poppy, warm feeling to it – is this more Ben Allen’s influence, from when you brought him on the record? Well actually you probably would have thought that, but it was Jim who produced that song. Actually two of the most different songs to what we’ve done before, which are ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’, and ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ were both done by Jim, so there are no rules really with the album.
Now Jamie, I have to talk to you about your blogging duties; you were the first member to ever post something up, and now… nothing. Well we mainly use Twitter and Facebook ‘cause the blog’s really hard to actually use…! You know, just to post a picture, or something, so yeah, we’re more Facebook and Twitter fans!
OK, I’ll let you off; I thought you started very enthusiastically being the first one, and then just never again! Although you do use a disposable camera, which is very interesting… Well we’ve got all these pictures from the recording sessions on disposable cameras, which I should probably put up on that blog, but I haven’t got round to it!
There’s always that magic with a disposable camera where you always get a couple of pictures that you never remembered taking; have you had any of those? Yeah, and there are also some that are just total pitch black because I’ve sat on the camera, or something like that!
That’s the magic, isn’t it, of an analogue camera! Well Jamie, we know that you’ve been to Norwich before, but we always ask if anyone has any memories of playing in our fine city…? Obviously the Puppet Theatre is the stand out gig, for where it was and because we were wearing puppets! No, no, every time we’ve played there it’s been lots of fun.
As a crowd, what can we bring to you? The main thing that we ask is that the crowd returns our energy; that they do some jumping up and down without fighting, haha! That’s what I noticed at Latitude – lots of 16 year old boys that get a little too in to it!
Emma Garwood
Bombay Bicycle Club bring all the songs from their three albums, ‘I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose’, ‘Flaws’ and ‘A Different Kind of Fix’, the latter of which was released on August 26th, to play the UEA on October 10th. For tickets and info, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk.
Bombay Bicycle Club first came to Norwich a few years ago now. With a knapsack full of intricately created Indie tracks that defied their 17 / 18 years, they could probably remember their Pythagoras theory from school as fresh as the chord progressions from their own songs. Four shifty, awkward lads then unleashed the live prowess and astonishing creativity that has seen them jauntily bound up the ladder, releasing 3 albums and playing a Latitude Word Arena headline slot. We get to chat to Jamie McColl again, after few years growing – the same reserved, polite guy – now, just recognised for the musician he always knew he could be…
We’ve actually interviewed you before Jamie, over two years ago – you were about to play our Puppet Theatre… Oh yeah, I remember!
It was on your tour of weird and wonderful little places. Your venues have got a bit bigger since then, haven’t they? Yeah, they have, although we still like to do the smaller ones as well.
Can you see yourself doing something like that again? Yeah, definitely. Obviously the tour we did last summer for ‘Flaws’ was still somewhat different; smaller and more intimate venues – lots of churches.
Before this full UK tour, there’s the little matter of an American tour to get through - has America given you a warm reception in the past? Er, well we’ve only been once before really. We haven’t really done much there; we’ve never really done the extensive touring cycle with any of the albums really because obviously it’s been three albums that have moved on quite quickly. We’re sort of giving it more of a go this time we think.
You’re gonna be whoring this one all over the place, are you? Yep, unashamedly!
You get some support dates with Two Door Cinema Club, but I was wondering after playing massive festival headline slots this year, does it kind of take the pressure off playing support? Yeah, it does actually and it’s quite a nice, unpressured environment to play in, I guess, to practice these songs before a big headline tour in October.
What’s it like being the support band? Do you get a little more space? Yeah, pretty much. This one will be interesting because we’re at a similar sort of level as Two Door Cinema Club in the UK, so hopefully it’ll create some healthy competition on tour!
How will you settle this though? Clap-o-meter? Well obviously it’s their gig, so they’ll probably win that one!
I think you should still have one, in the interests of fairness. Battle of the Bands style!
Talking about those bigger gigs, you headlined the Word tent at Latitude this year and it was my festival moment of the summer. Norwich and Latitude have traditionally been good places for you, haven’t they? Yeah, I don’t know why, but I remember the first proper tour we did, Norwich seemed to have the most people there outside of London. I don’t know why it is; there seems to be a good Indie scene in Norwich, with people going to gigs and I guess that’s translated to Latitude as well. Both times we’ve played at Latitude have been two of my favourite gigs.
It’s obviously just ‘cause we have awesome taste. Yep!
It was part of quite a triumphant summer for you, with a Glastonbury appearance as well. Tell us a little about this heady summer of yours Yeah, well it’s just been what it’s like for anyone else really; lots of festivals… It’s weird really because unlike in previous years, the album’s coming out at the end of the summer, so no-one’s really heard it and sometimes festivals aren’t the best places to play new songs as well, but we’ve kinda gone ahead and done it anyway, and it’s gone well – it’s a success!
I couldn’t believe your frantic energy when I first saw you play live a few years ago now – are you almost a different band on stage, because I’ve read before that you consider yourself a shy band playing big songs on stage… In person we’re quite calm and we choose our words carefully and don’t say a lot, but I think we are one of those bands who are designed to make music and not really play the game in a way. We save it all up for when we go on stage; you’re only up there for 45 minutes, so you might as well go crazy and expend all energy while you’re up there.
I wondered how that worked for your quieter gigs on the ‘Flaws’ tour – was the energy just interpreted in a different way? Well it was the polar opposite really, us playing acoustically because obviously you need the crowd to be quiet in a way. There’s also these awkward moments between songs, because people are in a church, they don’t know whether to clap or not. You can hear a pin drop. It took some getting used to, but it was fun as well.
Maybe Gospel churches are the way forward, because they’re quite exultant places. Do you think that tour has given you more versatility playing live, playing in those extremes? Yeah, it kinda feels like we can do anything now, in terms of touring. Probably now, the hardest thing is incorporating some of the tracks from ‘Flaws’ into the new set. We didn’t do it at the festivals, but we’ve started working in ‘Ivy & Gold’ now. I think we’ll try and do ‘Rinse Me Down’, as well, from Flaws because there are so many people that love that album, but maybe they don’t necessarily like the heavier stuff. It’s about trying to find some sort of compromise, I suppose.
